


They Taste of Raspberries

by JustReallyExcitedAboutDragons



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Gen, Magic, Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane, Mystery, see if you can spot the twist, see tropes:, the little shop that wasn't there yesterday, twist ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-20 02:04:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17613359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustReallyExcitedAboutDragons/pseuds/JustReallyExcitedAboutDragons
Summary: Five kids walk into an antique shop.





	They Taste of Raspberries

**Author's Note:**

> having shown this story to like three people who didn't get the twist at the end, see if you can spot it.

**** The bell above the shop door rings five times as they stumble in: a girl, two boys, and then two more girls bringing up the rear. The first girl is tall, athletic, her pin-straight hair dangling from under her baseball cap. She's laughing, pushing one of the boys so he falls, also laughing, against the other. The boy she pushes is tall too, with broad shoulders; the other one is not, so he laughs a little louder and tries not to bump into the girl behind him. The last two girls enter arm in arm, smiling but not laughing, but when the boy who does not have broad shoulders wobbles into one of them she giggles a little. Both of the girls are short, but the one who giggles is wearing platform shoes, so she looks taller. The girl who does not giggle has dull, sandy hair; the girl who giggles also has dull hair, but only the roots are visible beneath her bright yellow highlights.

The girl in the baseball hat comes to lean on the counter as the others try to arrange themselves around the dim, cluttered shop so that they can all see her without getting in her way. She smacks the bell on the counter, then hits it again without waiting for anyone to come. She keeps hitting it until a curtain in the back wall parts and a man steps out, wearing a tweed suit and carrying a black cane. He is very old and spindly, with thinning white hair, but he does not appear to need the cane for walking.

“What can I do for you, young lady?” he asks in a neutral voice.

The girl in the baseball cap turns around to look at the others, to make sure they're all watching. “We heard you had some weird stuff in here,” she says, smiling, trying not to laugh. “We wanna see weird stuff."

He smiles gently at her, amused that she is amused. “What kind of weird stuff?” he asks, with a raised eyebrow.

“You know, magic stuff,” she replies, wiggling her fingers at him. The boy who does not have broad shoulders makes a ghost noise, and the girl with the dyed hair laughs.

“Magic stuff,” the man with the cane repeats. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

“How about a pin that makes me really good at sports?” the boy with broad shoulders asks.

“Or a magic mirror!” laughs the girl with dyed hair.

“Or one of those monkeys that plays the symbols that's haunted,” says the girl with the baseball cap. “You know, that kinda stuff.”

The man with the cane laughs, a tiny exhalation of air out his nose. “I don't think I have any magic mirrors,” he says apologetically.

The girl in the baseball cap shrugs. “OK, well-”

“I do, however,” he cuts her off gently, “have these.”

He reaches under the counter and pulls out two large glass jars. One is full of little red candies, and one is full of little blue candies.

“Candy?” says the girl in the baseball cap exasperatedly.

“ _ Magic _ candy,” the man with the cane corrects.

She looks at his skeptically.

He wiggles his fingers at her.

“OK, so what's magic about it?” asks the boy with broad shoulders. “What's it do?”

The man with the cane takes the lid off the jar of red candies. “If you eat one of these,” he says, picking one up between two long fingers and holding it up for them to see, “you gain the power to read minds and control thoughts. You can tell what a person is thinking, not just on the surface but deep in the recesses of their mind, the things they don't even want to know about themselves. You can also alter their thoughts, make them think and believe whatever you want.”

All five of them are staring at him. “Seriously?” asks the girl in the baseball cap.

“Maybe,” the man says, smiling gently, “maybe not. Either way, it's free candy.”

“What do the blue ones do?” asks the boy who does not have broad shoulders eagerly.

“The blue ones,” the man explains patiently, “taste of raspberries.”

“So if I eat the red one,” the girl in the baseball cap asks, “I'll be able to tell what people think of me? What they really think of me?”

The man with the cane holds out the red candy to her. “Whatever you want.”

She takes it. The man picks up the jar of red candies and offers it to the boy with broad shoulders.

“I'll be able to make coach think he should name me MVP?” he asks.

“Whatever you want,” the man with the cane assures him. The boy who has broad shoulders takes a red candy, and the man with the cane offers it to the boy who does not.

The boy who does not have broad shoulders stares at the red candies. “I'll be able to make any girl think I'm hot?” he demands. “I'll be able to make her fall in love with me?”

“Whatever you want,” the man assures him, and he snatches one up so quickly the others rattle loudly. The man with the cane offers the jar to the girl with dyed hair.

She eyes them nervously, looking from the jar to the man holding it and back again. “I'll be able to make people think I'm pretty?” she asks, in a small voice.

“Whatever you want,” the man assures her, and she carefully reaches in a hand and takes one of the red candies between two fingers. The man with the cane turns to the girl with dull hair, and offers her the jar.

“I'll have one of the raspberry ones, please,” she says.

The girl in the baseball cap rolls her eyes. “Seriously?” she demands. “Just take a freaking red one.”

“I don't want a red one,” she insists, “I want a raspberry one.”

The boy who does not have broad shoulders pops his candy into his mouth and crunches it loudly. “Taaaake the red ooone!” he says in a deliberately quavering voice, wiggling his fingers at her.

“Fuck you,” she shoots back, “it's sick that you want to  _ make _ a girl fall in love with you. And I don't want to know what people think of me, people are assholes. Besides, I like raspberries.”

“Are you sure?” asks the man with the black cane, smiling gently.

“I'm sure,” says the girl with dull hair firmly.

The man smiles just a little wider. “Whatever you want,” he says, and offers her the jar of blue candies. She takes one and puts it immediately in her mouth.

The bell above the shop door rings five times again as they all file out. They set off for home slowly in the fading light, sucking or crunching the candy in their mouths as they go.

The boy who does not have broad shoulders glances at the girl with dull hair. “Pussy,” he says.

“Fuck you too Chris,” she snaps. “And don't call me a pussy just 'cause you're butthurt you didn't make the team.”

Chris hunches his shoulders, glaring at her. “I didn't say anything.”

**Author's Note:**

> did you spot the twist?


End file.
